He Probably Ate It!

Charlie's the one with the cone, of course.

Charlie Brown has always been a bit of a problem child.  My husband calls him "damaged goods" because he often has some physical or mental ailment.  We purchased Charlie from a breeder in the Pinelands of New Jersey that operated out of a trailer.  Okay, it did seem sketchy, but what did we know it was our first dog purchase.  I know two other people who purchased dogs from the same breeder and their dogs are a little wacky too.   Perhaps the breeding was a little too close?  Don't worry, the breeder is no longer in business.

In the past few months Charlie has had surgery on both legs for torn ACLs.  The surgery is quite expensive and the physical therapy after recovery is also pricey.  The waiting room at the veterinary hospital where I took Charlie was full of patients every visit, so I am not alone in my willingness to shell out thousands of dollars for my pet.  If you have any college-age children trying to figure out what career to pursue, I would suggest Veterinarian.  Seems very lucrative!

As a side note, when Charlie was in his pre-op state he was an angel in the waiting room sitting patiently with all of the other the four-legged patients, but when we returned for his post-op check-up he was back to his old asshole-self acting like a nut towards the other patients.

Last week it seemed like Charlie was almost back to his regular self when I noticed he was licking one of his front paws, non-stop.  When I looked at his paw there was some blood in his fur and it appeared as though a toe nail was torn away from his paw.  Great.  Since it was late afternoon when the paw dilemma occurred we had to wait until the next day to get it checked out.  Since Charlie sleeps in our bed we were kept up most of the night with the constant licking.  (Sleeping arrangements in our house deserve a separate post.)

We are well known at the Vet so Charlie was seen the next morning.  I carefully described the details of Charlie's latest ailment and after the Vet took a look at his paw he told me, "It looks like it resolved itself."  "What resolved itself?"  "He must have had a hang nail and worked it off."  "So, it's gone?"  "Yes, he probably ate it."

I paid the fee and went home to check our bed to make sure Charlie did, in fact, eat his hang nail!  I could not find it in the bed, so I guess ... He Probably Ate It!